As much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.1
ATTRIBUTION:
Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subsect. 2.
Note 1. Carpet knights are men who are by the prince’s grace and favour made knights at home…. They are called carpet knights because they receive their honours in the court and upon carpets.—Markham: Booke of Honour (1625).
”Carpet knights,”—Du Bartas (ed. 1621), p. 311. [back]
